Book Review #1: The Talisman

For the month of April I chose to read a book that scares me and the first author I thought of was Stephen King. I’ve never read any of his books before because of that very reason: I thought they all would scare the living daylights out of me. And to be honest, I procrastinated in selecting a book because I was already scared.

A friend suggested I read Pet Semetary but unfortunately I couldn’t find that book locally and would have to order it, and to avoid that waiting period I picked up the next Stephen King book I could find at the local book store. What I found was the Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub.

So ok, because it has two authors, I have no idea if I’m cheating on this one, but I also know I haven’t gotten anywhere with this book and April is already done. So my reading plans have been shot to sh*t.

Anywho . . .

The Talisman is about a boy, 12, who comes to terms with the fact that his mother is dying. And even though she’s dying she drags him across the country to avoid a colleague of his dead father. When she finally settles in a place that seems almost dead itself, he meets a friendly stranger and is told he can save her by travelling back the way he came to find the Talisman.

And that is about as far as I’ve gotten. Yes, I’ve told you already, I’m a slow reader. Don’t rub it in!

There are some magical properties to the story, and some supernatural subconscious activity going on, but . . . sad to say, nothing to write home about, and definitely nothing scary. I don’t know if it’s because I’m not exactly 12 any more, so whatever scares the boy wont scare me, OR is it that I haven’t gotten to the scary bits yet?

Kings’ writing style is very unique, nothing like I’ve ever read before. He has an odd way of structuring his sentences that throws me off, and sometimes it seems his thoughts just roll right into each other, without pause, without filtration, without remorse. I guess that’s a result of free-writing, and I guess I can understand why. Once you get accustomed to his style of writing the story flows much better.

As for the plot structure, I haven’t gone in-depth with this book so I can’t adequately analyse that aspect, but I honestly feel the start of the story took too long to get anywhere. It felt too long and drawn out. I’m used to jumping right into the meat of the matter, not that action needs to happen, but the story needs to feel like its going somewhere, especially when the book is physically a large book.

In all, I’m slightly disappointed with the start, I’m not gonna lie . . . as someone who expects a great scare from the renowned Stephen King. But, I will be patient and persist in finishing this book.